


Keefe Breaks a Bone

by spindlewig



Category: Keeper of the Lost Cities Series - Shannon Messenger
Genre: Gen, in which keefe gets to curse, let the boy curse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-19
Updated: 2020-04-19
Packaged: 2021-03-02 01:35:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,654
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23726941
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spindlewig/pseuds/spindlewig
Summary: In which Keefe gets to curse and breaks some bones. Oh, and Lord Cassius is a d*ck.
Relationships: Sophie Foster & Edaline Ruewen & Grady Ruewen, Sophie Foster & Keefe Sencen
Comments: 3
Kudos: 17





	Keefe Breaks a Bone

**Author's Note:**

> based on this prompt: https://write-it-motherfuckers.tumblr.com/post/613970861261717504/person-a-motherfucking-titty-waffles-that

"Motherfucking titty waffles, that hurt!" Keefe swore, and Sophie glared at him.

"Then why did you do it?"

"I thought it would look cool!"

Sophie sighed and shook her head. “Keefe, I swear, you’re almost catching up to me with Elwin visits.”

Keefe gave her a grin. “Nah, no one can beat Mysterious Miss F. with Elwin visits. You basically live there.”

Glaring at him, Sophie checked her imparter. She’d called Elwin as soon as Keefe had landed with a painful snap after attempting a triple back-flip. She was pretty sure he had broken something. He was right about the Elwin visits, though- Elwin basically had a shrine around what he called “Sophie’s Bed”, she visited there so much.

“Grady had better not find out about this or he’ll never let you hang out with me,” Keefe said. “I just got him to start using my name instead of just calling me ‘that boy’.”

“You should be more worried about your dad- what’s he going to think?”

“My dad?” Keefe laughed bitterly, “He barely even manages to say ‘good morning’ to me, you really think he’s going to talk to me long enough to find out the events of my day?”

Sophie frowned, wishing she could knock some sense into Lord Cassius. The elves may think of themselves as the supreme race, but they still really sucked sometimes.

“Hey, let’s not talk about my dad though,” Keefe said, noticing her frown. “Why don’t we talk about the fact that I almost basically did a triple back-flip?”

“You didn’t even manage one!” Sophie said, forcing a laugh to make Keefe happy.

“Yeah, but I totally will next time.”

“Whatever you guys are talking about, there’d better not be a next time.” Sophie felt a surge of relief as she turned and saw the new voice.

“Elwin!”

“Hey, Sophie. For once I’m not rushing off to bring you back from the brink of death!” Elwin grinned, happy as usual. He set down a bag and set to work checking on Keefe.

“Yup, broken bone. Easily fixed. How about next time you do whatever you were doing, you try to avoid smacking against hard ground, huh?”

Sophie breathed a sigh of relief. Even though she’d figured it had only been something easily fixed, she’d worried nonetheless.

“Whoa, were you that worried? Trust me, I’ve done worse- broken bone is nothing!” Keefe said, waving a hand in front of his face and grinning.

“He has,” Elwin confirmed, giving Keefe some various things to drink.

“Yeah, well, I still don’t like watching it happen. How about you try not to hurt yourself when I’m around?”

“Anything for you, Sophie,” Keefe said, attempting a half bow. Sophie rolled her eyes but grinned.

“Alright, Mr. Mischief-” (”Ooo, I like that one,” Keefe muttered) “- don’t do anything strenuous. You’ll sleep like a dead man and wake up good as new.”

Elwin packed his things up while Sophie and Keefe thanked him, blinking away in a flash of light.

“Want me to take you home?” Sophie asked, knowing the answer as she said it.

“Naw, I’ll be fine. See you at school tomorrow.”

“Yeah, see you-” Keefe blinked away with a final smile. “- tomorrow.”

Sophie sighed and raised her home crystal to the light, feeling the familiar feather brush as she returned home.

<>

“How’d the date go?”

Sophie was back home and eating supper. Grady and her both sighed at Edaline’s comment, then smiled at each other.

“It wasn’t a date, Mom,” Sophie said, feeling the word slip comfortably off her tongue. She’d only started calling her adopted parents Mom and Dad recently, and though it still felt slightly sad, it felt right too. It felt like it fit.

“Cute boy, cute girl, alone... sounds like a date!” Edaline said, frowning as she looked at her plate. She reached out and summoned a bowl of bread.

“Sure, he’s cute... but I don’t like him like that! We’re just friends.”

“If you say so,” Edaline said with a shrug. Sophie stuck her tongue out and her parents both laughed.

“No dating in this house until you’re at least twelve hundred years old,” Grady said, grinning to show he was joking- though only a little bit. Sophie was okay with that, though. She didn’t really feel like dating anyone any time soon.

“So anything fun happen?”

Sophie thought back to the sound of Keefe’s bone breaking and winced, then shook her head.

“Hey now, I know that look- something bad happened, didn’t it? You didn’t get hurt, did you?”

“No, I’m fine- Keefe just took a tumble-” Sophie thought that should be a safe answer.

“A tumble?”

“He’s fine,” Sophie said, as much to convince herself as her parents. Keefe would be fine, Elwin had said so-

Her imparter rang and she grabbed it, feeling her heart dropped as she saw who was calling.

“Keefe- you never call this late, are you okay?”

Grady frowned and Sophie ignored it, seeing Keefe’s face fill the screen. He looked- broken. Sophie had never seen him like this, and she felt worry squeeze her chest.

“Yeah... I’d love to say something funny right now but... I don’t think I’m fine, Soph. My dad- he-”

Keefe flinched at a loud voice Sophie couldn’t make out. “Can I come over? Just for tonight- I’ll sleep in the stables or something-”

“Keefe, of course- what happened-”

“Tell you in a bit.” Keefe looked relieved as Sophie gave permission for him to come over and he blinked away.

Sophie was already rushing to where he’d be beaming in, wanting answers to the million questions she had, and also wanting to make sure Keefe was actually okay.

A flash of light, and Keefe was there. He flashed a grin and Sophie felt some worry fall off-

\- until he winced and clutched his chest, falling to the ground.

“Keefe!” Sophie cried, rushing across the room to him. She was already digging out her imparter, ready to call Elwin.

“Hey, Foster. Grady’s not pissed I’m coming over, is he? Cause I can probably find somewhere else to stay-”

“I’m pretty sure I’m the least of your worries right now,” Grady said, crossing the room with Edaline by his side. “What happened?”

“My dad found out I um- broke a bone- which would have totally healed, by the way- and... I dunno, I guess that was the tipping point or something? He, uh- well, there was a heavy object nearby and- I think I may have broken some more bones...” Keefe tried to grin, trying to turn it into a joke, and Sophie felt something in her heart die a little.

She’d always thought Keefe might be downplaying how bad his home life was. Back when she thought she was a human, she’d known some kids who had left an abusive household, and Keefe had always seemed to have the signs. She’d just never dug into it because she didn’t want to invade his privacy- though now she felt bad about that.

“You’re saying Lord Cassius... hit you?” Grady sounded disbelieving, and Sophie had to remind herself that to the elves, stuff like this was probably unheard of. Or at least, they refused to believe it.

“Naw, a statue hit me. Dad just threw it.”

Edaline gasped, covering her mouth and looking at Grady. He frowned and shook his head, and Sophie was worried he was about to say something stupid. Thankfully, he didn’t.

“Well, you’re welcome to stay here as long as you need... son.” He added the last word as an afterthought, and Sophie saw tears spring up in Keefe’s eyes.

Elwin appeared, effectively distracting everyone. He hurried to Keefe and inspected him, frowning.

“I can’t leave you alone for any amount of time without one of you getting hurt, can I,” he said gently. Keefe grinned a little, then winced again.

“Alright then, let’s get you fixed up. You’re going to sleep like a rock once I give you one of these, so where do you want to pass out?”

“He can borrow Sophie’s bedroom and we’ll throw some pillows and blankets in our room for her- if that’s okay, Sophie?”

“Of course,” Sophie said. “I’ll go grab my stuff.”

“Gee, getting to sleep in the room of the Mysterious Miss F- I should’ve had my dad throw a statue at me sooner,” Keefe joked as Sophie left.

Grabbing some blankets and Ella, Sophie looked at her remaining stuffed animals and arranged them for Keefe. He’d need some comfort, even if it came from stuffed creatures.

“You be good, okay? Keep Keefe company,” Sophie instructed Iggy, heaving the blankets as she carried them to her parents room. She threw them in one of the side rooms, setting Ella gently on top of them.

She arrived back to her room in time to see Elwin giving Keefe a vial.

“See you later, Soph,” Keefe said, giving her a wobbly smile. He downed the contents of the vial and coughed, waving a hand in front of his face.

“Ew, Elwin, do your remedies always taste like shi-” he paused mid-sentence, and soon snores filled the room.

“He’ll probably sleep until midday tomorrow at least- he’s got a lot of healing to do.”

“He’ll be okay though, right?” Sophie tugged out an eyelash.

“Physically? He’ll be good as new. Mentally? That might take a while to heal.”

“He can stay here as long as he needs, though. He may be a mischief-maker and troublesome prankster, but I will admit he’s got a good heart somewhere in there.” Grady smiled at Sophie and she smiled back.

“Thanks, Dad. And thanks, Elwin.”

Elwin nodded and headed out, probably heading back home.

“Alright kiddo, might as well go to bed. We’ll see how Keefe is tomorrow, okay?”

“Okay,” Sophie whispered, casting one last glance at Keefe before following her parents out of her room and towards her temporary bed.


End file.
